After years of soul-searching and months of counseling, you’ve made the difficult decision to end your marriage.

But don’t want your divorce or separation to be a knock-down, drag-out brawl.

One where you and your spouse hate each other when it’s over. Spend hundreds of thousands of dollars on divorce attorneys or litigating in court. And scar your children for life by destroying their family.

Instead, you want to have a peaceful divorce.

But you don’t know how or if it’s even possible.

So before you do anything, let’s first take a closer look at what it means to divorce amicably. And discuss five things you'll need to do to plan an amicable divorce process from the start.

Your marriage is ending and the same fears keep rushing through your head:

The house: “Will I have enough money to keep it?”

The bills: “How will I be able to pay them?”

Health insurance: “Will I be able to get coverage?”

Retirement: “Will there be any money left to save for the future?”

In divorce, all of these fears are normal and have something in common:

Money.

When it comes to money and divorce, there's one issue that's more emotional, controversial and challenging for spouses to resolve than any other.

Whether you call it alimony or divorce maintenance, coming to agreement on a matter that will require an ex-husband or wife to give money to the other ex-spouse to support their future lifestyle after the marriage is challenging, to say the least.

And the topic of alimony in Illinois is a complicated one.

Ask anyone who's been ordered to pay spousal support how they feel about having to write a check to their former spouse every week or month.

You’ll probably be met with a few choice words...

The fact is - most people want to just move on after a divorce, sever ties and go their separate ways.

Unfortunately, when there are alimony payments involved, it can feel for the payor as if this separation never truly happened, which can ultimately lead to frustration and bitterness on the part of the payer.

That’s why some divorcing spouses choose an alternative to the weekly “check in the mail” alimony approach.